This invention relates to the field of lubricious hydrophilic coatings for intracorporeal medical devices, and more particularly to a lubricious hydrophilic coating grafted onto a catheter or onto a guidewire.
The use of a medical devices within a patient may be facilitated by the presence of a lubricious surface on the device. For example, intravascular devices, such as catheters and guidewires, are more easily maneuvered within a patient's vasculature when the friction between the walls of the vessel and the intravascular device is reduced. The friction may be reduced by coating the device with a hydrophilic compound which becomes slippery after adsorbing an appreciable amount of water. Consequently, the hydrophilic coating provides lubricity when the coated device is exposed to aqueous solution, as when the coated device is exposed to water prior to insertion in the patient or to the patient's blood during use. Alternatively, coatings, such as fluoropolymers, and silicone, provide lubricity to the surface of an intracorporeal device without the need for exposure to aqueous solution. However, the degree of lubricity may vary greatly depending on the nature of the lubricious coating. Hydrophilic coatings provide superior lubricity compared to hydrophobic coatings, such as silicone, when tested against a biological tissue countersurface.
In addition to lowering the coefficient of friction of the coated device, an effective lubricious coating must strongly adhere to the device surface. The lubricious coating should remain adhered to the device surface during potentially extended periods of storage, as well as in response to abrasive forces encountered during use. Poor adhesive strength is undesirable because the lost coating may be left behind inside the patient during use, with a corresponding decrease in the lubricity of the device. Typically, a trade off exists between a coating's lubricity and the coating's adhesive and cohesive strength, so that attempts to increase the adhesive strength of lubricious coatings may inadvertently decrease the lubricity of the coating. Consequently, one difficulty has been providing a highly lubricious coating that strongly adheres to a device surface.
It would be a significant advance to provide a hydrophilic coating which strongly adheres to a surface of a medical device to render the device highly lubricious. The present invention satisfies these and other needs.